


Part of Your Orbit

by kaleidomusings



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alec Lightwood Deserves Nice Things, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Cats, Friends to Lovers, Kittens, M/M, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-24
Updated: 2019-06-24
Packaged: 2020-05-18 16:41:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19338466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaleidomusings/pseuds/kaleidomusings
Summary: Its siblings seemed to approve of the idea, and Alec soon found himself pinned down by a kitty pile on top of his chest. Helplessly, he glanced at Simon, but the traitor just covered his mouth with a hand, completely failing to hide his smile."I guess I had better go on a supply run," he said, amused.





	Part of Your Orbit

**Author's Note:**

> I just wanted a reason to write a fic that involved Alec rescuing some kittens and falling in love along the way.
> 
> Thank you for reading, and please leave kudos and comments letting me know what you think. You're also welcome to tag me on Twitter using #kaleidofics.

Alec didn't keep pets. His friends seemed convinced that it was because he disliked animals or that his level of care of other living things was both alarming and dangerous, but that wasn't the case at all. Well aware that caring for a pet was a big responsibility and —with everything going on in his life, from working on his thesis and keeping up his scholarship— Alec didn't have time to give an animal all the love it needed and raise it properly. 

But he also couldn't abandon a creature that needed his help, so when he found a cardboard box in a dirty alley with three tiny malnourished and dirty kittens crying in hoarse voices, the mere thought of leaving them made him sick. So he carried the box home, his jacket draped over the top to keep the kittens warm. Their cries lessened after that, which made it easier for Alec to think and come up with a plan. Fortunately, his roommate Simon was home early from his day at the clinic. so Alec wordlessly handed him the box while he set up a little nest in the corner of the living room out of a few bathroom towels. 

"Put them there and keep an eye on them," Alec said as he headed toward the kitchen, ignoring the frantic noises Simon was making about bringing stray animals into the apartment. 

He heated up some warm water in a large bowl and grabbed a few clean dish cloths. When he returned to the living room, Simon had two of the kittens in the nest and was cradling the third and smallest one in his hands, sounding cheerful when he said, “They're so adorable and most definitely diseased. Where did you find them?" 

"On the street," Alec replies, plucking one of the kittens out the nest and rubbing it clean with a wet cloth. It cried and struggled, but when he was finished, underneath all the dirt and grime were splashes of orange, black, and white of a little calico. Simon helped, cleaning the kitten he was already holding, which revealed out to be almost completely black with a patch of white on its chest. The last was a little grey tabby, who curled up in Alec’s lap and instantly fell asleep. 

Its siblings seemed to approve of the idea, and Alec soon found himself pinned down by a kitty pile on top of his chest. Helplessly, he glanced at Simon, but the traitor just covered his mouth with a hand, completely failing to hide his smile.

"I guess I had better go on a supply run," he said, amused. 

Alec glared at him, but couldn’t find any fault with that logic and squirmed until he could pull his wallet free and tossed it in Simon’s direction. "Here. Use my card." 

Simon pocketed it with a nod and went to grab his keys. As the front door closed behind him, Alec shuffled his way onto the couch, trying not to wake the kittens. He soon started to doze, telling himself he was only going to rest his eyes for a quick minute—

—

The snapping sound of a camera phone startled him awake. 

Izzy danced back with a laugh and started fiddling with her phone. "I need to send this to everyone," she said gleefully. 

Alec considered the idea of leaping up off the couch after his sister, but decided it required too much effort and was sure to wake the kittens, so he just gave her his most withering glare. He glanced down to find the calico and tabby were cuddling together on his stomach, and the black one was curled up under his chin and purring like an engine. It was absolutely precious and would only add to the reasons why his friends dismissed his prickly exterior. 

"I hate you,“ he said.

"Don't be like that," Izzy said with a grin. "This is just too cute. Isn't it, Magnus?” 

Alec’s face flushed when he finally noticed the man in question standing in the doorway of the kitchen, because _of course_. He worked his mouth, trying to think of what to say before finally giving up. He expected Magnus to tease or make fun of him, but all he did was stare with a strange expression Alec couldn’t decipher. Feeling self-conscious, Alec slowly sat up, the little black kitten cupped against his chest, running his free hand through his messy curls in a halfhearted attempt to smooth them into place. It didn't work. 

But it did seem to wake Magnus from his stupor. With a jolt, he stepped forward to take the little black kitten from Alec so he could sit up and fed it from the bottle he had with him. It started suckling greedily and its siblings stir at the sound, immediately starting to whine for their own meal. 

Simon came to the rescue then, two other bottles in each hand. "I got some kitty formula and all their necessities. I wasn't sure what kind of litter to get but when I spoke with the employee at the pet shop—" 

"I want to feed one," Izzy interrupted, grabbing one of the bottles and scooping up the tabby kitten in her arms, sitting down at the far end of the couch. 

"Thanks. You can show it all to me later." Alec accepted the other bottle handed to him and cradled the calico against his chest as it fed. It watched him with its big, round eyes and he couldn't help smiling back. Although he couldn’t exactly say what it was, something made him glance up and find Magnus staring at him with a strange expression he couldn't read. Realizing he’d been caught, Magnus turned away and bent over Izzy, fiddling with the tabby’s little paws, which kicked out at his fingers. 

Izzy noticed Magnus still standing and frowned. "Come on, Magnus. Sit down. The kittens have to be comfortable." 

“Of course,” Magnus said, almost hesitantly, but he sat down all the same, right next to Alec. 

Alec swallowed hard as Magnus’ shoulder brushed against his and tried very hard not to think about the warmth of his thigh pressed against his own. 

\-- 

The next day, Alec took time off of work so that he could take the kittens to the vet. He would’ve preferred to go alone, but Simon mentioned it the night before while Izzy and Magnus were still over. And when Magnus suggested the vet he took his own cat —Chairman Meow— to, as well as offering to be an extra pair of hands and wanting to be there for moral support, Alec didn't have the heart to refuse. 

The vet was a kind, older man named Luke Garroway, who answered all of Alec’s questions and concerns with ease while weighing the kittens and checking them over. From what he could tell, the calico and black kitten were female and the tabby was male. They were all about three weeks old. They were also surprisingly healthy, considering they were taken away from their mother so early and abandoned as they were. 

"Although I'm a little concerned about this one," he said, holding the little black kitten in his hands. "She's much smaller than the others, so you may have to keep an eye on her in case she develops any diseases. But just to be on the safe side, I can prescribe some medication if anything out of the ordinary occurs." 

"Thank you," Magnus said when Alec remained silent, just smoothed his hand along the calico's back, who was happily nestled in his lap. When his hands stilled for even a moment, she started to whine, demanding more attention. 

Garroway smiled. "Feel free to call me for any questions that you might have." 

Magnus assured him they would and coaxed the kittens back into their carrier, before leading the way back to his car. Alec climbed into the passenger seat and waited expectantly for Magnus to take them home, but he turned to look at him instead. "Are you all right?" 

Alec glanced away, suddenly embarrassed. "I'm fine," he said, but it was too hurried to be the truth. 

Magnus didn’t reply and simply started up the car and pulled out of the parking lot. But he kept glancing at Alec out of the corner of his eye, until Alec finally looked back at him, flushed and irritated. 

"What? I'm just—“ He faltered slightly, but forced himself to keep going. “I just feel that I should’ve taken the kittens to a shelter Immediately instead of bringing them home, then maybe there might have been less chance of them getting sick." 

"That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard," Magnus replied. Alec glared at him, stung, but he raised a hand to keep him from arguing. "Shelters are all well and good, but there are diseases they can pick up no matter where they are. And in any case, they're so young that they probably would have been euthanized if you did.” 

Alec blinked and looks down at the carrier in his lap, where the black kitten had reached for him through the bars with one paw. He brushed his fingers against the soft pink underside and smiled. "All right. You made a good point." 

"I'm known to do that every once in a while," Magnus said with a wink, and if Alec blushed a little, he’d never admit it to anyone but himself. 

\-- 

It wasn't long before the entire group found out about the kittens Alec rescued. One by one, they started finding excuses to sneak into the apartment and take a look at them. 

Aline teased Alec mercilessly about being an angelic savior of small, defenseless animals while Helen watched on with a smile. Clary brought over a huge pile of books on kitty care and nearly melted when the tabby nuzzled her hands. Catarina and Madzie fall in love with the calico, but it turned out that Maia was scratched by a cat when she was younger and stiffened whenever the kittens got too close to him. Of course, Jace —being Jace— discovered that he was deathly allergic to cat dander and had to leave the room before he ended up suffocating. 

As for Lydia, she knew Alec better than anyone. When Izzy loudly announced that Magnus had been going over to the apartment almost everyday to help care for the kittens, she raised a questioning eyebrow in Alec’s direction. He couldn’t help flushing in response, because she was the only person who had any idea about his feelings for Magnus. 

"Are you all right?" Lydia asked later, when Alec escaped into the kitchen under the pretense of grabbing some paper towels to clean up after the kittens with. 

The real reason he was hiding was because of Simon and Magnus were playing with the kittens in the living room when the calico pounced too enthusiastically and nearly toppled them all over. To catch his balance, Magnus’ hand had landed right on Alec’s thigh, making him jump off the couch and leave the room before he did something embarrassing, like press into the touch with a moan and doing something incredibly stupid. Or kiss Magnus, which was exactly what he really, really wanted to do for as long as he’d known him. 

"I'm fine," Alec insisted, but it didn’t sound at all convincing when he couldn't seem to catch his breath.

\--

Several more weeks passed while Alec suffered, having Magnus so close and yet still out of reach. Because Magnus continued stopping by whenever he got the chance, even commandeering the couch on the nights he didn't want to go back to his place, and always seemed to be touching him in one way or another. They were mostly small fleeting touches —a bump of the shoulder, the nudge of his knee against his— but Alec couldn’t help _wanting_. He wanted so much more, but he was too scared to actually ask for it, afraid of being rejected. So he finally decided that when the kittens were big enough, he could adopt them out to a real home, a better home, so that Magnus didn't have to come around anymore. 

“I’m going to ask Garroway about it,” Alec said, when it was just the two of them in the apartment. The kittens were tumbling around the carpet, chasing each other, and attacking the toy Magnus waved around for them.

Magnus looked at him with a shocked and hurt expression on his face that took him aback. “Why?” 

"A tiny little apartment with three cats?" Alec tried to sound reasonable and keep his composure, but his heart was beating so fast. Why was Magnus making this difficult? "They barely have any space to run around as it is." 

"So you're going to give up on them just because it's a little inconvenient for you?" 

Alec frowned. He was the one who woke up that morning with the kittens piled on his chest, purring happily. He wasn't giving them away because he wanted to, it was so that things could go back to normal. So Magnus didn't have to feel obligated to spend more time with Alec than he had to. "They're going to be miserable if they don't have any space. And they should be given all the attention they deserve. That's not something I can provide for them." 

"I'm here too," Magnus said. He seemed to realize how that sounded and cleared his throat, as if he was embarrassed. "And so is Simon.” 

"But you won't be. Not forever," Alec said before he can help himself. Because people left eventually, no matter how much he loved them, no matter how much he tried to hold on to them. And pets, no matter how much he wanted them in his life, could never live long as a person could. 

When Alec was a boy, he used to have a cat. A beautiful, smoky gray cat with yellow eyes named Church. He used to patiently waited for him to come home from school every day, followed him around like a dog wherever he went, and slept with him at night. But one day, he got sick and his condition was too serious for the vet to do anything about it, so his parents decided to put him down. Then they got divorced not long after that, which just made everything so much worse. And as much as Alec adored the kittens now, he wasn't sure that he’d ever be able to go through that sort of loss again. It was why he never gave them proper names, despite Simon insisting that they did. He was a fool for even picking them up off the streets in the first place. 

Magnus was silent for a long time. "What is this really about?" he asked.

And Alec was suddenly angry, heartsick and aching with it. "I love you," he blurted out. "I have for a long time. And while I'm glad you come over to help take care of the kittens, it makes me hope for too much. But the kittens deserve better than that. _You_ deserve better than that. That's why we should put an end to things now, before it gets worse later." 

Magnus stared at him in stunned silence before shaking his head. "You are _ridiculous_.” 

His words hurt more than a physical blow, but when Alec started to defend himself, Magnus caught his hand and pressed his lips against his fingers, he was almost too surprised to react. Then Alec relaxed and leaned in for a proper kiss, tasting Magnus’ smile against his mouth.

"I love you too, even though you're a complete moron," Magnus murmured when they finally pulled away to catch their breath. "And if you're so worried about space, we'll find a bigger apartment. The two of us and the cats, including the Chairman.” He placed his free hand gently on Alec’s knee and gave it a squeeze. "We'll make this work." 

“Simon may not like that,” Alec said dryly. 

“He’ll learn to deal with it. And we can help find him a new roommate,” Magnus said and kissed him again, which made Alec’s heart feel like it might burst. 

Because he didn't keep pets. It was required too much effort went into taking care of them, was too much of a responsibility, and it was painful when they passed on. He wasn't sure he would be able to handle it when the kittens grew up and he’d have to stay goodbye to them for good. But at least, with Magnus around, maybe he didn't have to deal with it alone. 


End file.
